It’s a black Friday indeed

Kaitlin Dryburgh

I’m sure it didn’t escape your notice, but last week we had Black Friday. In fact, I know it didn’t escape you, as it was well and truly shoved in our faces and rammed down our throats. The day after Thanksgiving now seems to have significance here, apparently.

Now, I do enjoy a bargain, and when money is tight in the lead-up to Christmas, getting a little discount on something is always a welcome surprise. I even managed to tick a few presents off my Christmas list during these sales.

That being said, it’s extremely hard not to view Black Friday with cynicism. It’s not an outpouring of generosity from retailers who want to ease the cost of Christmas shopping. In fact, it’s been proven many times that the deals they promote aren’t always as good as they advertise, or in some cases, are non-existent.

The pressure Black Friday exerts — and succeeds in exerting, in many cases — to promote overconsumption and a desire for products we don’t need is quite sickening. This year, the thing that made me groan was the offer of a payment plan for a candle. A very expensive candle could be paid for in instalments. Isn’t that the height of consumerism? The fact that a £370 candle exists is crazy enough, but to have been persuaded that you need it, despite not being able to afford it, is baffling.

The implications of Black Friday are plentiful. Firstly, retailers and marketers are eager to give you more reasons to buy things you don’t need, and offering a small discount, in their eyes, provides that reason. Black Friday is big business, and businesses are serious about it. Amazon made nearly $10 billion in Black Friday sales last year.

Secondly, the immediate consequence of persuading people to buy things they don’t need is, of course, waste. This includes waste from the increased packaging required to send online orders, as well as the waste that inevitably ends up in landfills over time. The high volume of online sales also leads to a large number of product returns, as people fall victim to buyer’s remorse. The carbon footprint caused by the high number of Black Friday returns should not be underestimated.

Then there’s the cultural consequence. The increasing popularity of Black Friday highlights how, as a society, we’ve become accepting of marketing tactics designed to make us buy useless products — things we don’t need or even see any value in. It’s all adding to the culture of overconsumption.

In some cases, it’s easy to add to the landfill when the cost and value of the product are so low that there seems to be no real consequence. Scanning the deals on online retailers like Boohoo and PrettyLittleThing, you can pick up a skirt for £2 and a dress for £2.40. Fast fashion is a whole other ball game of marketing madness and climate-crisis-inducing practices, but it’s particularly rampant during Black Friday. What does it really say when we’re selling a £2 dress? That the work and materials going into that dress are worth so little that it costs the same as a bottle of juice, and it’s disposable enough that you can throw it away without a second thought, as it’s worth less than a cappuccino.

I find it frightening that we can price clothes this low. If alcohol and cigarettes come with warnings and minimum pricing, why isn’t an industry that causes so much environmental damage held to the same standards?

Black Friday is simply the culmination of the hyper consumerism we’ve been witnessing for decades. The ultimate goal is to get someone who doesn’t need something to buy it with money they don’t have, a marketer's dream. Hence the creation of a £370 candle on a payment plan. Black Friday goes hand in hand with services like Klarna and Clearpay — the ‘buy now, pay later’ crowd, who thrive during this shopping event. The pressure to buy now is real. The countdown at the top of the page, the limited time to get the discount, and the constant advertising really apply pressure. I won’t lie, I’ve been drawn in before, you start to consider buying something before you realise you just don't need it, even if it is 20% off. People can easily get carried away and start spending beyond their means.

The Institute of Money and Mental Health (founded by Martin Lewis, who, as it turns out, is one of the most trusted figures in the UK) has called for an end to these pushy tactics and the ease with which products can be bought via the ‘buy now, pay later’ method. Their research indicates that people with poor mental health are more likely to make purchases they can’t afford during events like Black Friday. Of course, everyone makes their own decisions, but marketing techniques are specifically designed to appeal to those who are impulsive or can be converted into impulsive buyers. They know exactly what they’re doing — it’s no coincidence. Debt is a real consequence of Black Friday. The Institute of Money and Mental Health also reported that more than half of adults who have used a ‘buy now, pay later’ service believe the option makes it far too easy to fall into debt. The credit offered by these services has quadrupled in the last four years, and it is expected to reach £30 billion this year. It’s a fairly unregulated sector that preys on the most financially vulnerable and inflicts misery on thousands. Black Friday will have only added to that figure.

But Black Friday doesn’t just negatively affect consumers and their immediate environment; it also buries the positive alternative. Local shops and smaller businesses, which typically offer more ethically sourced products and conduct business in a more ethical manner, get screwed over on Black Friday. They simply cannot afford to compete with the likes of Amazon. Even on a normal day, large retailers often out-price them, as their business model allows for this, but Black Friday means they may not even get a look-in. Black Friday emphasises flashy advertisements, flash sales, and quick savings, and an independent shop simply cannot replicate this — nor should they.

The local shop represents the antithesis of mass consumerism — it’s the fight against a £2 dress. Some small businesses in England have fought back with the creation of ‘Colour Thursday,’ a campaign designed to encourage people to shop locally and support small businesses.

So we need to shop local as much as we can, I know it isn't always possible. But even more so we can't carry on letting huge retailors get away with the damage they continue to do. Common Weal has long campaigned for policies that make producers responsible for the waste their products cause, and regulations for fair and ethical marketing practices.